Lisa McGarry offers her thoughts on the Celebrity Big Brother House

Today we’ve been chatting to Lisa McGarry, editor of Unrealitytv.co.uk who knows a thing or two about Celebrity Big Brother. Lisa is a huge fan of wine, chocolate and Gumtree (and tormenting her friends by making them move her furniture apparently!) Check out her thoughts on this year’s House and some of the Gumtree items those lucky celebrities have been using…

What do you think of the design of the 2015 Celebrity Big Brother House?

It’s one of our favourite house designs to date, and a very far cry from the original and über basic design, furniture and fittings that the very first Celebrity Big Brother housemates Anthea Turner, Vanessa Feltz, Keith Duffy et al had to endure in 2001…

For the debut series, the housemates moved into the show’s original house in Bow, London, where they had to endure a stark living room with cold blue walls, and a basic kitchen that featured only a stove a sink and a fridge. The two bedrooms – one for girls, one for boys – provided little aesthetic relief either, and the famous Diary Room featured a simple white chair.

Now of course, the likes of Perez Hilton and Katie Hopkins are enjoying plush sofas, luxury beds and even a Fortnum & Mason tea set that is fit for a queen. And in the shared bedroom, there’s a beautiful chaise longue that even the biggest of drama queens would find perfect for a spot of lounging.

What is your favourite item in the House and why?

Our favourite item just has to be the Regal dog statuette. We are still rowing over what breed of dog it is (the most votes are for the pooch being a pug) – but what’s not to love about a dog in a crown?

Perez may have taken a shine to the bunny in the house, but for us, when there are no books, TV or Internet just staring at that statuette would while away many hours.

Favourite room and why?

Without question, our favourite room is the bathroom. It’s so decadent, it’s almost immoral…

That deep and sunken whirlpool bath, the gold trees on the walls, the beautiful sofa; again, what’s not to love?

What do you think of the 4 items Gumtree put in the house?

Well, we’ve already mentioned how much we love – and want more than chocolate or wine right now, and that’s saying something for us – the gorgeous vintage Fortnum & Mason tea set and the beautiful and elegant chaise longue…

We also love the mirrored cube side table and that stunning white twig tree installation that was made by Gumtree seller, Jill Griffin.

*Note to self – send memo around office that all purchases from Gumtree must be made on employees’ own credit cards… except for mine. Mine can go on the corporate card.

What would you like to buy from this year’s house?

That’s easy. Everything.

Well, everything except that aforementioned bunny that Perez got ‘close’ to. Let’s be honest, nobody’s going to want that now it’s been kissed, hugged and wept on by P Dawg are they?

How do you think the design of the House will affect the housemates’ behaviour?

Well, we would hope that such opulent and elegant surroundings would inspire similarly upmarket behaviour, however, Patsy Kensit and her ‘parps’ would indicate that is not the case…

If you could design the CBB House, what would you do?

Again, that’s a very easy question to answer. We would employ this year’s house designers to do it for us…

What you, dear reader, don’t know, is that we have no interior design skills whatsoever. If you’d asked us what Feng Shui was, some of us would have said ‘a mushroom’ while others would have suggested it was possibly a fungal foot infection.

Our office has, therefore, been deemed to be the Office That Time and Taste Forgot. Enough said.

If you could furnish your house with items from Gumtree, which would you choose and what would you like to put in it?

For a start, if we were to make space for every item of furniture that we’d love to snag on Gumtree, we may need Liz and Phil to vacate Buckingham Palace so that we can use the space. However, what we would have to have is an outdoor hot tub. Ooh, and a bar in our living room…

#MustHaves

Any funny stories behind any of the furniture in your own house?

We would have to say ‘No’ to that question having had a conflab about it in our office. However, while not amusing per se, one of our writers did once have goldfish that committed suicide. Well, she says ‘suicide’, the rest of us say, ‘You overfilled the goldfish bowl’. Again, enough said there. We don’t want to start fish-death-gate up all over again.

Describe the style of your own house?

If I’m being honest, then one word covers the style of my abode, and that word is ‘messy’. If I’m lying, then the style is ‘homely, lived-in and eclectic’.

Where do you buy/find your furniture?

Anywhere and everywhere! Gumtree of course, but also Freecycle sites and skips. Don’t ask…

Have you ever upcycled?

Yes we have, though we should warn anyone else thinking of doing it, riding a bike up a wall is dangerous.

#JustSayNoKids

What would be your top tips for transforming a room with a £1000 budget?

Naturellement, buy your goods from Gumtree, where £1,000 goes a very, very long way, and that being the case, we would expect to have change from our £1,000…

With it, we would buy ourselves several bottles of wine so that we may sit drinking it while watching others carrying in our purchases and arranging them in our room.

For extra sport, you should add sniggering while getting the people you’ve roped in to help you transform your room by moving everything around at least three times, until it’s – as per Goldilocks and that porridge/bed malarkey – “Just right”.

A wickedness for sure, but in keeping with Celebrity Big Brother’s Twisted Fairytale theme…

The Media Team

We are the people behind Gumtree, and we do our best to make it an enjoyable experience. We hope you liked the thoughts we shared with you on this blog. Feel free to comment about the subject in the comment area below.

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